Stories for January 2012

Tuesday, January 31

Reconstruction and reconfiguration of the Cherokee-Madison-East Mountain View-Ward Road intersections in Normal Heights was recently completed. Begun in fits and starts last summer (including a shutdown when funds ran out) in conjunction with the 40th ...

At the January 30 Sweetwater Union High School board meeting, the Vega report was released. Parents, teachers, and students have been demanding the report for months. It appears their suspicions had substance. Attorney Greg Vega ...

Friday, January 27

On the evening of January 26, animal-rights activists associated with StopForceFeeding.com protested in front of Bertrand at Mister A’s because the restaurant serves foie gras, the fattened liver of force-fed duck or geese. In July, ...

People use jargon because they want to sound smart and credible when in fact they sound profoundly dim-witted and typically can’t be understood, which defeats the purpose of speaking in the first place. – Karen ...

Thursday, January 26

Author: Stephen Gallup Neighborhood: Carmel Valley Age: 61 Occupation: Technical writer I don’t claim to be a competent speaker of anything other than English, but when I hear Mandarin spoken, I’m often able to discern ...

Wednesday, January 25

“In the old days, you had kingmakers who would put in the people they wanted over the objections of those in the community,” says Donna Frye.The former city councilwoman is speaking of the two major ...

A former Carlsbad attorney admitted that she took money from two clients’ accounts and used those funds “for personal use,” according to a plea deal read in court by the judge on January 24. Patricia ...

On a mid-December morning in 2007, Deanna Fridley, a 23-year-old housewife, got up and fed her kids, got them dressed, and smoked some meth. “Midmorning sometime, yes. My cousin came over with some. We smoked ...

Heavy Hawaii will play a release party for their three-song 7-inch “Superbowl XXIX” (Art Fag Recordings) on Saturday, January 28, at M-Theory Music on Washington Street, beginning at 6 p.m. Tim Flack’s full-length The Bridge ...

After 22 years, the Soul Persuaders played their final show on January 19 at Humphrey’s Backstage Lounge. The band started in 1989, fronted by Steve and Mark Siers, as a side project to their long-running ...

“Maybe it was a small gator,” I say. Maybe she’ll bang my face on the counter...

"Don’t rush me!” Dion’s voice cuts through the noise. She’s barking at a customer who wants to pay up and go. “Besides, you haven’t drunk enough yet. We have rules!” Dion walks away muttering, under ...

“It’s kind of a trip,” says Donald Vercelli, who plays Mike Ness in the Social D tribute band formerly known as Socially Distorted. “Apparently, Mr. Ness doesn’t like other bands spreading his music around.” In ...

“Roller skating has been around since the 1700s,” Bernice read from her iPhone. “It’s funny to think of the founding fathers on skates. I’ve always associated roller skating with the 1970s.” “Did they have the ...

EXT. A TELEPHONE BOOTH. BALTIMORE ALLEY. RAINY. LATE NIGHT. Baltimore head coach John Harbaugh is drunk, drool and spittle ooze from his mouth, flows down his chin and cheeks, then gathers itself and drips onto ...

Hollywood spends too much time and money turning tragedies into buckets of custard. In The Descendants, a coma crisis is sweetened by Hawaiian scenery and George Clooney’s breeze-along charm. In We Bought a Zoo, the ...

In a gambling casino, you can lose your shirt — and worse, your health. That’s why several groups are working on California’s Indian casinos to go smoke-free. Many such casinos, particularly in San Diego County, ...

A major archaeological site, a treasure trove of fascinating plants and animals, and beautiful scenery ranging from wide-open desert views to narrow winding mountain canyons all await anyone who takes a drive and hike up ...

Fujiya & Miyagi’s David Best doesn’t really sing, he hisses in rhythm. In LCD Soundsystem, James Murphy would alternate talking with singing. Even talk-singers such as the Hold Steady’s Craig Finn and Art Brut’s Eddie ...

“Color is the structural material I use to build the forms I am interested in.”

While sampling one of the “immersive environments” in Phenomenal: California Light, Space, Surface, currently at the Museum of Contemporary Art San Diego, I suffered a mild panic attack, but don’t let that keep you away. ...

Ex–Democratic assemblywoman Lori Saldaña, who at one point or another has considered running for the San Diego County board of supervisors and the state Board of Equalization and is now in a tough match for ...

KPBS isn’t the only SDSU cause to benefit from Qualcomm-related largesse. According to a June 24, 2011 filing on the website of the university’s Campanile Foundation, Qualcomm vice chairman Steve Altman flew the school’s associate ...

"Mostly all lies” is how San Diego State University graduate student and teaching assistant Ashley Wardle characterizes statements two California State University officials made during a joint legislative subcommittee hearing in Sacramento last month. The ...

Twenty-eleven was a good fund-raising year for KPBS, the public broadcasting operation owned by San Diego State University, thanks in major part to billionaire Qualcomm founder and civic activist Irwin Jacobs. According to recently released ...

Show of hands: who thinks there should be more songs about panda bears? Especially as sung by pixie-cute British girls and — Damn! — their husbands, apparently... Foxes!, from Brighton, England, are the band for ...

The opulent, gold-tinged walls of Copley Symphony Hall let each note fight for space with Jeff Tweedy's soothing howl as Wilco played a flawless, riveting two-hour set. Touring in support of The Whole Love, the ...

Tuesday, January 24

When Mexican president Felipe Calderón came to Tijuana on January 20, he signed a decree initiating the first stage of the Zona Económica Fronteriza act, which will eliminate Mexican tariffs that currently make it cheaper ...

San Diego criminal defense lawyer Allen Robert Bloom, 61, was convicted of two DUI counts by a jury in the Vista courthouse on January 19. Deputy Andrew E. Dvorak testified that he could smell vomit ...

On January 13, the Oceanside Public Library's board of trustees held an unprecedented emergency meeting. The meeting was precipitated by an announcement by city manager Peter Weiss that a private library-operation firm had approached the ...

Thursday, January 19

Tijuana’s streetlight crews have been busy of late. A city worker replaces a bulb on the pedestrian promenade leading to the tourist district. During the street’s renovation a few years back, many of TJ’s street ...

This universe existed in the shape of darkness, unperceived, destitute of distinctive marks, unattainable by reasoning, unknowable, wholly immersed, as it were, in deep sleep. Then the divine self-existent, himself indiscernible, but making all this, ...

“I think that thing is staring at me,” someone in our tour group remarked nervously. No, it wasn’t a wild animal spotted while hiking through the wilds of Vietnam. It was the fish proudly displayed ...

The Virgin Islands are a great travel destination. While the islands are American territories, accept U.S. dollars, and speak English, there remains an exotic, faraway flavor about them. West Indian culture strongly influences the islands ...

Wednesday, January 18

Sumach Ecks, aka Gonjasufi, went from under-the-radar beat producer and rapper to a dreadlock-shrouded icon with the 2010 Warp Records A Sufi and a Killer, a collection of psychedelic hip-hop tracks featuring Ecks’s craggy, overdriven ...

Despite the Chargers' losing season, negotiations over a new stadium (the results of which may or may not see the team leave the city) remain at the forefront of San Diego's political discussions. During the ...

“This is my Harley,” says Junior with pride. He hovers over the motorized kiddie motorcycle, which sits in the living room of Chris and Laura’s Santee home. Junior is five; his sister Lizzie is three. ...

From the appreciative letters that San Diego elementary school students have sent to the San Diego Music Foundation: “Dear Mrs. Taylor, Thank you for the beautiful guitars that you gifted us. We are very greatful. ...

Daniel Rodriguez tells this story about the origin of his band’s name, Elephant Revival: “Our bass player busked outside the elephant cage at the Lincoln Park Zoo in Chicago,” he says, where two elephants had ...

Kansas City native Jason “Captain Blackie” Blackmore has been playing guitar and singing in San Diego for over 11 years now, but before the Turf Club doorman began blowing the roof off of local venues ...

in November, musicians/promoters Michael Mannino and Arian Banki threw a party called Inner Vibration at a private residence near Vista in celebration of a close friend who passed away in June. Preston Grover was a ...

“A few years ago, there was talk in certain music publications about the death of the guitar,” says Sam Lopez, curator of the San Diego Experimental Guitar Show. “Notions were made that this archaic instrument ...

The New York Times’ Jon Caramanica recently wrote that mainstream rock has become zombified, that even country music has shown more experimentation than rock in recent years. He raises some interesting points, but his article ...

Henry II, Eleanor of Aquitaine, their sons Richard I and King John: mighty names, each exuding historical import. Henry II dressed like a commoner and ruled, at one point, from Scotland to the Pyrenees. His ...

Search for Native American grinding holes while admiring spectacular desert scenery from an alluvial fan.

This hike takes you up Pinyon Wash, lined with wildflowers in the spring, and into Harper Flat, an extensive area of Native American use. At the end of Pinyon Wash Road, the well-marked trail takes ...

What the heck does “dead roots stirring” mean? Is it meant to evoke horror? When one stops and considers, dead roots stirring could be kind of horrible. But it’s never made sense to over-analyze stoner ...

Former naval aviator Bill Wachtler of Solana Beach is an engineer with multiple patents to his name. He still flies a Stearman biplane, the kind of two-seater used for training at North Island before and ...

Fans of the Red Hot Chili Peppers awaiting their sold-out show scheduled for Wednesday, February 29, at the Valley View Casino Center, will need to cool their heels until September 23. It was announced on ...

With public pension costs going through the roof, the stock market flat, and a shortage of tax dollars to make up the difference, politicians everywhere say they’re looking for ways to force “double-dippers” — government ...

The San Diego Sports Commission paid its president Alan Kidd a total of $165,477 during the 12 months ending in June 2010, according to the nonprofit group’s most recent Internal Revenue Service report. The group ...

Oxxo convenience stores are springing up all over downtown Tijuana. This reporter counted ten while walking the eight blocks along Avenida Constitución from Calle Ocho to Calle Primera (more than one store per block). It ...

The Lincoln Club of San Diego County sponsored the first mayoral debate to feature the four leading candidates on the evening of January 13. Councilmember Carl DeMaio, district attorney Bonnie Dumanis, congressman Bob Filner, and ...

Monday, January 16

A tipster recently brought to the Reader’s attention the fact that Calexico Unified School District is beginning to look like Sweetwater Union High School District. To begin with, Calexico’s district counsel is GCR, LLP, the ...

Saturday, January 14

In a closed session on January 11, the Southwestern College board suspended their Proposition R program manager, Seville Construction Services. The board also suspended BCA Architects, which was hired to design Southwestern College’s now-infamous corner ...

Occupy San Diego’s three-month anniversary on January 7 was a cause for celebration for dozens of activists who marched from Children’s Park to the Civic Center to participate in a rally. Activists, however, are calling ...

New to Paris is Place Django Reinhardt. Well, the site isn't new, but the designation is. The site is where the gypsy guitariste et compositeur lived in his caravan, in the Saint-Ouen neighborhood of Paris's ...

The good news: Kensington and Talmadge residents are pleased that Aldine Drive, the eastern access road to/from the Kensington community from Fairmount Avenue, was reopened to through-traffic on January 9. The road had been closed ...

Tuesday night, January 10, the Chula Vista City Council wrangled for four hours over whether or not the chamber of commerce (aka the Tourism Marketing District) was doing an adequate job promoting motel/hotel businesses. Finally, ...

The holiday cards started coming in around this time last month. I'd gone through dad's directory and contacted as many of his acquaintances as I could, informing them that he'd passed away in June. Still, ...

We spent an afternoon testing black tea in anticipation of my mother-in-law’s annual visit. Husband Patrick was assisting. The salesman at La Mesa’s All Things Bright and British said that it’s important to prepare tea ...

San Diego native Gary Ra’chac spent several years working at Tasha’s Music downtown before becoming a singer-songwriter and radio personality. His songs have been recorded by Ray Brandes and Nick Castro & the Young Elders. ...

The term “dive bar” is thrown around pretty loosely these days and, not unlike “dude,” “epic,” and “excessive force,” the essential meaning has been all but lost. Enter Tobacco Rhoda’s. Famous for its Filipina bartenders ...

According to bar manager Christian Siglin, the powers that be at Craft & Commerce have banished vodka. “A lot of people aren’t used to fresh ingredients and strong flavors,” he says. “That’s why we don’t ...

Director Xavier Durringer imagines the political ascent of French president Nicolas Sarkozy. There is a touch of vulgar whimsy in the way the politicians phrase their frustration: “First the press licks you, then tricks you, ...

Katherine Harroff Artistic director of theater company, circle2dot2.com The Royal Tenenbaums is an old favorite of mine that I’m continuously fascinated with and drawn to. I love Wes Anderson as a cinematic artist for his ...

“The San Diego scene for our sound is all right,” says Beejay Buduan, guitarist and songwriter in Clockart, over coffee at Twiggs on Park Boulevard. “It’s more of a rock city. It was getting pretty ...

The Dirt Daubers came to be because the organizers of the Raindance film festival in London couldn’t afford airfare for the Legendary Shack Shakers. Colonel J.D. Wilkes is a member of both bands. “It started ...

“I had to wait for my contract to expire with [TV talent show] Platinum Hit, but my sophomore album Space.Bar.Love is finally being released,” says singer/songwriter Amber Ojeda. Though she didn’t win the Bravo network ...

Hellhole Canyon Open Space Preserve east of Valley Center is a valuable resource for wildlife, hikers, and equestrians, with running water, a scenic canyon, and spring wildflowers. It is a place to learn about the ...

Last week, Sweetwater’s interim superintendent Ed Brand suspended the Funds for Education Committee, saying, “I can stop the grief right here.” This is the second time Brand’s private-sector fund-raising efforts have ended in controversy. Brand ...

Last week’s revelation that San Diego mayor Jerry Sanders proceeded with Qualcomm’s Snapdragon Stadium promotion even though the office of city attorney Jan Goldsmith said the gambit was illegal has drawn little public comment from ...

The United States and San Diego economies should muddle through in 2012 — growing very slowly — unless an economic civil war of sorts erupts in Europe. It’s already rumbling and could cause a global ...

South Bay Democratic assemblyman Marty Block, ramping up for a run for state senate this year, has shut down his old assembly campaign committee but not before making a final payment of $5000 to legendary ...

Key concept for 21st-century Vince (Clarke) & Andy (Bell): convergence. That's right, everything's getting closer together, in the mix, in the lyrics, and not so as to stumble and fall, but so as to stand ...

Better Bookie Service Being a longtime sports bettor and onetime bookie, I took interest in “My Bookie Says, ‘Meet Me at Arby’s” (Cover Story, January 5). Overall, it’s a good account of the small-time bettor. ...

Tuesday, January 10

At its January 10 meeting, the San Diego City Council unanimously agreed to send a grant application to the State of California for a proposed Normal Street Linear Park. The $4.7 million project would create ...

Saturday, January 7

On January 4, Sweetwater Union High School interim superintendent Ed Brand suspended the services of Seville Group, Inc, the program manager for Proposition O. Managing $644 million of bond construction money, the company came into ...

The ancient Thai capital of Ayutthaya, about eighty kilometers north of Bangkok, is a worthwhile day trip if you’re staying in Bangkok. To really appreciate Ayutthaya, it helps to know a little about its history. ...

Two press conferences were held today pertaining to charges against current and former members of the Sweetwater Union High School District. At 10:00 a.m., district attorney Bonnie Dumanis announced that charges were filed against five ...

“When you look in a gecko’s ear, you can see clear out the other side. True or [not]?”

"More people worldwide are killed by donkeys than die in plane crashes every year. True, or shit?” Tom’s standing on the stage where the band Napoleon Complex will be playing later tonight. This is Wednesday ...

The release party for A Scribe Amidst the Lions’ new split seven-inch happens at the Casbah on Saturday, January 7. “The other band is Sour Soul from Mexico City,” says lead Scriber Kris Towne. “We’re ...

“We call our music ‘grit pop,’” says Subsurfer bassist/singer Deric Fernandez. “Really gritty with a pop sensibility.” After making their live debut in January 2011 at 710 Beach Club in PB, they released their debut ...

“There seems to be a lot of freaks here,” according to guitarist/vocalist of Dead Animal Mod, Aaron Legrow. It appears San Diego’s reputation of being a garage-pop mecca has evolved to include genres yet to ...

“Living in San Diego, you hear that there is no scene here, that there is nothing going on,” says musician and freelance graphic designer Miguel “Miguex” Vega, who recently compiled a glimpse of the local ...

A rugged one-mile trail up the Ghost Mountain ridge leads to Yaquitepec (elev. 3215 feet), the ruins of an adobe home built by poet/author/artist Marshal South and his wife Tanya on top of waterless Ghost ...

Thursday 5“We can always blame it on the weather” may not resonate in sunny San Diego, but when the husky-voiced neo-soul vocalist and master bassist Meshell Ndegeocello delivers the lyric, you will nod along. Ndegeocello ...

“San Diego is such a volatile music scene,” says Jesse Kranzler, an organizer of the three-day “I Promise” Che Café benefit show. “One venue or group of bands usually keeps it going, especially in the ...

In about ten seconds, often less, she became the person she portrayed.

The Old Globe staged Tracy Lett’s August: Osage County and did a masterful job. Also at the Globe, Adrian Noble turned Shakespeare’s The Tempest into a musical with “wood notes wild.” The La Jolla Playhouse ...

As GOP congressman Darrell Issa’s seniority, power, and influence have grown in Washington, so has the bank account of his leadership political action committee, “Invest in a Strong and Secure America—ISSA PAC.” According to its ...

Gary Aguirre heads a San Diego law firm that since February has specialized in representing whistle-blowers, those who blow the whistle on financial fraud — often inside the companies they work for — and government ...

Union-Tribune owner Doug Manchester is famous for his financial contributions to Proposition 8, 2008’s successful ballot drive to overturn same-sex marriage in California. Not so well remembered is his backing of GOProud, a Washington, D.C., ...

New Year's Eve festivities at the Lafayette Hotel drew an interesting mix of guys who never wear suits wearing suits and femme fatales in arch-destroying heels. The condensed heat of the Lafayette Room was the ...

Born Nika Roza Danilova, Russian-American singer/songwriter Zola Jesus issued two EPs in 2010 that created a buzz around the young artist. In 2011, Zola Jesus compiled the stylistically impressive full-length Conatus, which ranges from synth ...

Ciudad Acuña is a small Mexican border town near Del Rio, Texas. Day-tripping Americans come for shopping, cheap booze and a shot at depravity in the compact tourist zone near the international bridge. Occasionally, a ...